What further influence these two movements will have on the missionary life of Islam, the future only can show. But their very activity at the present day is a proof that Islam is not dead. The spiritual energy of Islam is not, as has been so often maintained, commensurate with its political power.[49] On the contrary, the loss of political power and [[427]]worldly prosperity has served to bring to the front the finer spiritual qualities which are the truest incentives to missionary work. Islam has learned the uses of adversity, and so far from a decline in worldly prosperity being a presage of the decay of this faith, it is significant that those very Muslim countries that have been longest under Christian rule show themselves most active in the work of proselytising. The Indian and Malay Muhammadans display a zeal and enthusiasm for the spread of the faith, which one looks for in vain in Turkey or Morocco. [[428]]
[1] Organisations based on the model of Christian missionary societies do not begin to make their appearance until the twentieth century; some account of these is given in Appendix III. [↑]
[2] “À tout musulman, quelque mondain qu’il soit, le prosélytisme semble être en quelque sorte inné.” (Snouck Hurgronje, Revue de l’Histoire des Religions, vol. lvii. p. 66.) “Der Muslim ist von Natur Missionär … Er treibt Mission auf eigne Faust und Kosten.” (Munzinger, p. 411.) Snouck Hurgronje (1), p. 8; Lüttke (2), p. 30; Julius Richter, p. 152; Merensky, p. 154. [↑]
[4] See the interesting letter addressed by Mawlāʼī Ismāʻīl, Sharīf of Morocco, in 1698 to King James II, inviting him to embrace Islam. (Revue de l’Histoire des Religions, vol. xlvii. p. 174 sqq.) [↑]
[5] Anjuman Ḥimāyat-i-Islām kā māhwārī risālah, pp. 5–13. (Lahore, October 1889.) [↑]